Slice of Life: June 11th, 2018

For some reason I couldn’t wait to sit down and share a “Slice of Life” post with you today. There’s nothing super special included in today’s post, but I have come to just love going back through the pictures I’ve recently transferred from my phone to my computer and grabbing a few that are representative of our recent everyday lives.

These posts have slowly but surely changed just like the people that are always featured in them, so I guess creating these posts feels like I’m sitting down to write an entry in our family’s story or something. I’m getting older and more sappy by the day, I swear…

The last few weeks have been spent loving on a lot of babies. So many of my friends are in such celebratory seasons of life with weddings and new babies, and since life is pretty quiet for us, it’s fun to shift my focus to celebrating and loving on others.

I got to meet my long time friend Kerry’s brand new baby boy, Duke. Once I got him in my arms, I told Kerry to go ahead and knock out whatever she wanted to do because I could have sunken into her couch and loved on him for hours on end. Ahhh, my heart.

You guys know my sister and her kids are here for a few weeks, and I’m so in love with my baby nephew, I just can’t stand it.

My best friend Amberlee had her second baby boy last week, but before he was born, he put on a lot of belly shows for us from the inside. 🙂

Two days after the previous picture was taken, my mom and I ran up to the hospital as fast as we could to snuggle perfect, precious Carson James. (Amberlee and I have been best friends for 20 years, so my mom loves her like a daughter!) Hadley loves Amberlee so much and is fascinated that the fact that the baby she’s been feeling on the inside of Amberlee’s belly is actually the baby that we’re all now holding. I keep waiting for the questions I know are rolling around in her brain. 😉

And of course I’ve been doing a lot of lounging lately and snuggling my own babies, who are both so far from babies now. Sadie has been in a major snuggle phrase lately, and Hadley, well… she would snuggle all day every day if we could. She’s our sweet, sensitive soul whose love languages are absolutely quality time and physical touch.

We haven’t purchased much at all for this house yet (we are trying to get rid of as much as possible before we start bringing in new stuff), but I did bite the bullet and finally grab a set of nine frames that I’ve been dying to get for a while now. My good friend Chelsea shared this gallery wall a while ago, and I remember just falling in love with it. I have been waiting for the frames she used to go on sale, but recently they’ve been hard to find period, both in store and online. I did a ton of research and found some on Wayfair that I hoped would work.

The frames were a little tough to get the photos in and out of, so if I were to do this project again, I will 100% “splurge” and go with The 11″x14″ size refers to the picture size, though the entire frame is 16″x20″, meaning you will achieve the look below. So gorgeous!

Doing the math and getting them all hung perfectly took about two hours of a Saturday morning (after a couple cups of coffee to get my mind right), but I’m tickled with how it turned out. I’m usually so terrible at printing and displaying recent photos, so I’m glad to have these from our January in-home lifestyle shoot printed and displayed. Sometimes I look at them and feel melancholy about our sweet house and life in Kansas, simply because it’s so different than life here in Alabama. We’re obviously so happy with how things are going right now and wouldn’t change a thing, but a huge chunk of my heart will always be in Kansas.

One of my favorite days from the last few weeks was when I went out with my mom and sister (and breastfeeding nephew) to The Melting Pot for their “ladies night”, which consisted of drink specials and a deeply discounted price on a three-course meal. We so enjoyed ourselves, and my mom was so sweet and actually teared up because she was so happy to have us together. Having two daughters myself now, I can imagine why this was so special for her; It was special for me too! I know we will miss having our trio together when Jennifer flies back overseas for likely the remaining duration of their tour.

BBQing on the back porch is our favorite way to spend a weekend night, and having family to enjoy it with is so nice. Who’s enjoying the trampoline more: Grandpa or the grand-girls?

Finding a comfy, shaded spot outside on a hot summer day to enjoy a food truck lunch is a total win.

These goofy train conductors are a hoot together.

We spent an hour or so exploring the Huntsville Train Depot last weekend, and my sister asked my dad to take one of his famous selfies. He’s legit a pro at getting everybody in a selfie, no matter how many people or what kind of setting he’s working with. 😉 All four cousins are a wreck in this pic, and it makes me laugh!

Hadley started t-ball! Jamie signed her up months ago and bought her glove the very same day. She’s on the White Sox. 🙂

I couldn’t go to her first practice last week, but one of my good friends was able to take lots of pictures and share them in real time with me. Both Jamie and my friend’s husband volunteered to assistant coach, which neither of us are surprised about. 🙂

These two. Sadie has been so so so affectionate towards Hadley lately, and Hadley just doesn’t know how to handle all the love. 😉 Sadie constantly wants to talk, hug, give kisses, play, etc. and is always concerned if Hadley is crying or in trouble. “Whas wong sisher?” We’re working with Hadley on treating Sadie a bit more kindly even when she doesn’t want to (even when we agree that Sadie is being a little much haha.)

We did a quick “artsy tots” class last week at the Huntsville Museum of Art, and Sadie loved it! She got to use real Elmer’s glue, and I let her have a total heyday with it which made her life because I kind of hate doing that stuff at home. 😉 I am so not a crafty person at home, so whipping all of that out is what school is for (GOD BLESS THOSE WHO TEACHER LITTLE ONES. lol.) She made a little butterfly and couldn’t wait to show it to everyone she saw that day. 🙂

Most nights we’re found at the pool lately, which has been a fun way to hang with our neighbors and wind down before bedtime. My family came to join us on Friday, so we all packed a picnic dinner and stayed at the pool for several hours. Carly loves hanging with her Uncle J!

And so does Luke. 🙂 They already have a very special bond.

And finally, it’s so fun to hang with people in real life who you’ve been “internet friends” with for so long. Heather is a fellow blogger who I have so much in common with, so recently we decided to meet up and let our girls have some water fun followed by a picnic lunch. So enjoyable! So fun how the internet has such potential to bring like-minded people together who may not have connected otherwise.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Monday, my friends! See ya tomorrow! xo

Let’s chat!

What do some of your favorite summer nights look like?